Shea Moisture is under fire for its latest campaign after viewers felt the brand was turning its back on its roots in the black community.
The ad opens with a black woman who says she was mocked for her natural curls. It later transitions to a blonde woman saying she didn’t “know what to do” with her hair and a redheaded woman complaining about dyeing her locks. The message was for people to “break free from hair hate.”
SheaMoisture is CANCELLED pic.twitter.com/T4Dru1JgAq
— NANA JIBRIL ??️? (@girlswithtoys) April 24, 2017
The company, which was founded by Richelieu Dennis, who came to the U.S. from Liberia, has always focused on women of color. Some felt Shea Moisture was excluding its core customer base with its latest ad.
The cosmetics company later apologized in a Facebook post Monday, April 24. “Wow, okay — so guys, listen, we really f–ked this one up. Please know that our intention was not — and would never be — to disrespect our community, and as such, we are pulling this piece immediately because it does not represent what we intended to communicate,” the statement said. “You guys know that we have always stood for inclusion in beauty and have always fought for our community and given them credit for not just building our business but for shifting the beauty landscape.”
The statement continued, “While this campaign included several different videos showing different ethnicities and hair types to demonstrate the breadth of each individual’s hair journey, we must absolutely ensure moving forward that our community is well-represented in each one so that the women who have led this movement never feel that their hair journey is minimized in any way.”
See people’s social media reactions to the ad below: